1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording device, and a copier, and, in particular, to an ink-jet recording device including a heating-type fixing device which carries out heating fixing of liquid used for recording by making adhesion thereof to a recording surface of a recording medium, and, to a copier employing such a type of an ink-jet recording device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink-jet recording device performing recording by firing ink and making it adhere to a recording surface of a recording medium is put into a practical use widely. In an ink-jet recording device, generally speaking, a recording head is provided which has an ink firing nozzle provision surface which fires ink to a recording surface of a recording medium.
Such a recording head fires an ink drop formed by a pressure of an electromechanical transformation device or a heating energy of a thermoelectrical transformation device controlled based on a driving control signal supplied according to image data, to a recording surface of a recording medium through the ink firing nozzle provision surface.
In the recording head, in order to attain improvement in the speed of recording speed, a so-called multi-nozzle type is used in which ink firing nozzles are arranged at a comparatively high-density, i.e., for example, 400 dpi through 600 dpi, or ink nozzles are provided throughout a recording range, for example, throughout the width of recording medium.
In such a long-sized recording head, since ink is fired out comparatively so much for a short time, an ink firing amount increases compared with a conventional recording head, and dryness thereof comes to take a time on the recording medium.
Moreover, since an ink adhering to the recording surface of the recording medium has a possibility of causing a blot of the ink resulting from mixture of various colors of the ink as the number of ink nozzles increases and recording speed becomes higher, it is necessary to fix the ink onto the record surface of the recording medium positively within a short time.
A heat fixing scheme by which the ink adhering to the recording surface of the recording medium is dried by heating has been known as an effective method for fixing ink on the recording surface of the recording medium. However, concerning the dryness of the ink on the recording medium in a condition in which a recording head has many ink firing nozzles arranged there and having a long dimension has not yet been studied enough.
The present invention has been devised in consideration of the above-described situation, and, a first object of the present invention is to provide a page-printer-type ink-jet recording device having a long dimension in recording head and high density in nozzles such as to cover the entire printing width of a recording medium, and in which, a recording medium is carried by a carrying belt, and, thereby, an image formed thereon before dryness is prevented from being degraded, and, also, high-speed recording such as tens of sheets per minute, high definite and high quality image recording can be achieved.
An ink-jet recording device according to the present invention includes:
a multi-nozzle recording head having heating elements in a density in a range between 400 and 2400 dpi arranged on a substrate, wherein ink is fired out through each nozzle by a function of growth of air bubble generated in a recording liquid in each heating element,
wherein said multi-nozzle recording head has a long dimension so as to cover a printing range of a recording medium which is conveyed by a conveyance belt to a position at which the nozzle surface of said recording head face said recording medium.
Thereby, it is possible to prevent an image printed on the recording medium thereby from degraded even before the image has not been dried sufficiently.
The recording medium used there may preferably comprise a coating paper having a material coated on a base material such that the ink adhering thereto is easy to be absorbed thereinto
Thereby, the image printed is easy to be dried, and, thus, even the thus-obtained printed matters are stocked in a condition in which they are stacked on each other, each image on the printing surface can be prevented from penetrating to the rear surface or from being degraded
The ink-jet recording device may further include a recording medium heating unit for heating the recording medium and extending along a direction along which the nozzles of said recording head are arranged,
wherein the heating range of said heating unit covers a range wider than the printing range of the recording medium in which printing is performed by said recording head.
Thereby, the heating unit thus has a sufficient heating capability and, thus, can effectively dry and fix the ink on the recording medium.
The heating unit may preferably have a function of heating the printing surface of the recording medium not in contact with the recording medium.
Thereby, it is possible to prevent printed dots formed on the recording medium from deformed by the heating unit. Accordingly, it is possible to effectively dry and fix the ink on the recording medium without degrading the image quality.
The ink-jet recording device may further include a rear heating unit provided on the rear side of the recording medium, having a heating range extending along the direction along which the nozzles of said recording head are arranged, wider than the printing range of the recording medium.
Thereby, it is possible to further effectively dry and fix the ink on the recording medium.
The rear heating unit may preferably have a function of heating the recording medium in contact with the recording medium.
Thereby, it is possible to further effectively dry and fix the ink on the recording medium.
The heating unit may have a light source and an optical system condensing the light emitted by the light source.
Thereby, it is possible to momentarily heat the printing surface of the recording medium, and, thus, to effectively dry and fix the ink on the recording medium.
The heating unit may be a roller heating the printing surface of said recording medium in contact therewith, and having an ink-repellent material provided on the surface thereof.
Thereby, it is possible to effectively dry and fix the ink on the recording medium without degrading the image formed thereon by the ink.
An ink-jet copier according to the present invention includes:
a scanner part reading an image of an original; and
a recording part performing a recording operation by firing ink onto a printing surface of a recording medium based on image data supplied from said scanner part,
wherein the recording part comprises a plurality of recording heads for respective color components each having heating elements in a density in a range between 400 and 2400 dpi arranged on a substrate, wherein ink is fired out through a nozzle by a function of growth of air bubble generated in a recording liquid in each heating element which is driven according to the image data,
wherein said each recording head has a long dimension so as to cover a printing range of the recording medium which is conveyed by a conveyance belt to a position at which the nozzle surfaces of each recording head face the recording medium.
Other objects and further features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.